Why Is There So Much Wasted Space in the Universe?

If this universe was designed, why is there so much lifeless “wasted space”? John Piper reflects on the reason for the mind-boggling size of the universe in A Peculiar Glory:

“The heavens declare the glory of God” (Ps. 19:1). This is why God made them—to put his majestic glory on display. The Hubble Space Telescope sends back infrared images of faint galaxies perhaps twelve billion light-years away (twelve billion times six trillion miles). Even within our Milky Way, there are stars so great as to defy description, like Eta Carinae, which is five million times brighter than our sun.